Beyond Gender

What happens when a psychiatrist looks at the data and says no?At 94, Dr. Paul McHugh remains psychiatry’s most controversial voice. From shutting down Johns Hopkins’ gender identity clinic in 1979 to co-founding the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, his career has been defined by refusing to follow ideological trends. In this episode, McHugh shares how psychiatry abandoned scientific integrity, first with multiple personalities, then with recovered memories, and now with gender identity.As medical journals “affirm” psychological self-concepts over biological facts, McHugh sounds the alarm: what happens when medicine treats ideas instead of evidence?

What happens when a psychiatrist who spent 50 years treating gender dysphoria refuses to abandon science for ideology?Dr. Stephen B. Levine’s journey from co-founding a gender clinic in 1974 to being labeled a “hateful guy” reveals how a field once seeking answers became allergic to questions. As WPATH transformed from clinical inquiry to advocacy, Levine witnessed the moment when booing replaced peer review at professional conferences.From paraphilias as barriers to love to the myth of the 2% regret rate, this conversation exposes why the medical treatment of trans-identified people makes everyone miserable — patients, families, and the doctors who dare to say “we don’t know.”

What if the very way we parent today — hovering, curating, protecting — is destroying our children's ability to grow up?Nancy McDermott’s journey from Park Slope mom to parenting culture expert reveals how the family transformed from a sturdy institution into a fragile vehicle for self-fulfillment. As gentle parenting fails another generation and schools strip away parental authority, McDermott exposes how the 1970s divorce revolution created a traumatized generation now raising kids in perpetual fear.From birthday party invitations that require including everyone to teens who can't handle disappointment, this conversation reveals why modern parenting makes everyone miserable — and how we might find our way back.

What if millions of pregnant women were unknowingly given drugs that altered their children’s brains, and their grandchildren’s?In this episode, Jill Escher, autism advocate and president of the National Council on Severe Autism, shares the shocking discovery that reshaped her understanding of her family, and the modern neurodevelopmental crisis. Escher’s journey began with two profoundly autistic sons and led her to a startling truth: her mother received weekly injections of synthetic steroid hormones during pregnancy.Now, as rates of both autism and gender dysphoria skyrocket, Jill connects dots that the medical establishment refuses to acknowledge, from DES disasters to modern anti-miscarriage drugs still in use until 2023.

What if the most destructive concept in modern psychiatry emerged from men lying to get hormones? Mia Hughes traces the shocking origins of childhood gender dysphoria back to the 1960s, when researchers studying effeminate boys were actually chasing ghosts—transgender children who didn't exist. Meanwhile, Stella O'Malley shares her harrowing personal journey as a child who desperately wanted to be a boy, offering a rare window into what gender dysphoria actually feels like from the inside. Their conversation challenges everything: Is this a real diagnosis? Should it exist? And in our current culture, is it too dangerous to leave in the DSM?

“To a close approximation, I would, quote, diagnose the West as having a thoroughgoing case of borderline and narcissistic personality disorders.”What if the same psychological abuse tactics you escaped from your childhood home are now running our political culture? Josh Slocum saw it first in his borderline mother's rages, then in his leftist activist circles, and now everywhere: the emotional manipulation, reality distortion, and performative victimhood of Cluster B personality disorders have infected the body politic. A former funeral industry reformer turned cultural critic, Slocum brings 20 years of nonprofit leadership and personal trauma recovery to decode our narcissistic age. His message is blunt: we're being governed by the psychological rules of the personality disordered, and the only cure is learning to say "no."Full shownotes: https://stellaomalley.substack.com/p/cluster-b-politics-an-abuse-survivors

Buckle up for evolutionary psychology without guardrails. Diana Fleischman tackles the questions everyone thinks but nobody asks: Why do women feel visceral disgust at pregnant “transmen”? Why did #MeToo accidentally break dating? Could autogynephilia be men trying to psychologically "hunt" women? A polyamorous mother of two who openly advocates eugenics, Fleischman brings hard science to our softest taboos. She explains why your disgust reflexes know things your politics don't, why patriarchy might be "the natural order," and how millions of years of evolution shape today's gender wars. No apologies, no euphemisms - just data that nobody wants to hear.

Full show notes: https://stellaomalley.substack.com/p/disgust-dating-and-autogynephilia

What do you call a Pulitzer finalist, former lawyer, and veteran pharma investigator who dares to ask the questions no one else will?In this episode, Gerald Posner pulls back the curtain on the trans medical industry — exposing how profit motives, off-label drug loopholes, and institutional cowardice have allowed ideology to trump science. With chilling parallels to the opioid crisis, Posner warns: we’ve seen this before.

🎙️ “Everything I Believed Was a Lie” — Monica Harris Breaks the SilenceWhat happens when a Harvard-trained lawyer, raised to trust the system, starts questioning everything?In this episode, Monica Harris, former Disney executive, media insider, and now Executive Director of FAIR (Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism) reveals how she walked away from elite institutions, exposed the illusion of racial division, and discovered a deeper truth about race, media, and power in America.

Psychologist Jaco van Zyl explores how Western culture's shift from duty to gratification is harming young people's psychological development. From the dangers of gentle parenting to the allure of "my truth," this conversation dives deep into what we're getting wrong—and how we can build something better.